Disciplinarity and classroom practice: Epistemological issues in the analysis and improvement of teaching and learning. TRANSFERRED (2006–2008)

Abstract:

The proposed project aims to re-open debates about the relative significance of conventional versus interdisciplinary curricula, re-engaging disciplinary variation and its operation in everyday classroom activity as objects of debate and research. This project focuses on the variations in knowledge-building processes used by effective teachers in Biology, History, Physics, and Music classes in the senior secondary school years. It documents the structure of activities in these classrooms, compares epistemological processes across curriculum domains as they appear in lessons, and implements a series of increasingly scaled-up field experiments aimed at testing the efficacy and outcomes of interventions based on these patterns.